Do It Now

By Phil Pringle

Deferring decision making because of negative circumstances only provides you with a refuge for procrastination. Decision making can be hard, but the results of avoiding the tough decisions will always be harder – no problem gets better on its own. Good things happen because we make them happen by taking action.  Many times God tells His people to act today like they already have what they were hoping for tomorrow. Once we act, things start to happen, even miracles. Our natural inclination is to defer something we're hoping for and leave it in the sovereignty of God. 'His timing,' 'the right season'. But Jesus is telling us do not use 'sovereignty thinking' as a reason for inaction, but rather to have a higher vision - lift up your eyes - change your perspective. This book is about taking hold of your now, and getting that God vision for your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: PaX Ministries Pty Ltd
• Release date: Nov 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9789813300088

Book preview

Do it Now!

Congratulations! Today is your day! - Dr Seuss

Do It Now by Phil Pringle

Published by PaX Ministries Pty Ltd ABN No: 97 003 162 392

Locked Bag No 8, Dee Why, 2099, Australia

Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]

Digital Published by Faris Digital Solutions Pte Ltd

farisdigital.com

ISBN: 978-981-33-0008-8 (e-book)

Cover Design by Andrew Inglis

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This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise - without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by Australian copyright law.

Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture taken from the New King James version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982. By Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Living Bible, copyright ©1971.

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA.

All rights reserved.

Words in capitals, in bold or in scripture quotations are the emphasis of the author.

The words him, his, he, or man are sometimes used generically to describe people of both genders. Copyright 2020 by PaX Ministries Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Introduction

Ecclesiastes 11:4 (NKJV): ‘He who observes the wind will not sow,

And he who regards the clouds will not reap.’

Another way of saying this is that if you wait for perfect conditions you’ll never get anything done. Deferring decision-making because of negative circumstances only provides you with refuge for procrastination. Decision making can be hard, but the results of avoiding the tough ones will always be harder. No problem gets better on its own. It only gets worse. In fact, bad things happen without any effort at all, like weeds in a garden. Good things happen because we make them happen by taking action. We pull out the weeds and we nurture the plants. No employee gets better without feedback and attention to the good and the bad. Good feedback is easy to give, corrective feedback hard. Difficult conversations are the key to progress.

No dream comes to pass without determination to make it happen. What are you determining in your spirit will happen today, this week, this month, this year, in your lifetime? If you’re just dreaming, that’s all it will ever be. Just dreams. Better to decide and act than to keep forever dreaming.

‘Do it now’ is a maxim I’ve been trying to drill into my thinking for many years so that it’s my automatic response in life. On a side note, I reprogram my thinking, (‘renew my mind’ Romans 12:2) by speaking to myself. Thinking right thoughts is good, but the battle to push back opposing thoughts and replace with new ones calls for spoken declarations to be made by saying out loud to yourself, ’Do it now!’.

How sad to watch great people paralysed by justifying their inertia as rational, ‘given the circumstances’. Joshua was told to cross the River Jordan when it was flooded and up to half a mile wide, instead of the normal 20 feet¹. Jesus told Peter to walk on the water when a storm was howling around him². He also told fishermen to launch out into the deep for a catch when they had been fishing all night and caught nothing³. They pushed back. ‘We’ve been working hard all night and caught nothing!’ What would Jesus know about fishing? He’s a carpenter! We’re the fishermen. When the Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip, what was stopping him from being baptised immediately after he received Christ⁴, the evangelist did not say, ‘a six-week training course’. He baptised the new convert right there right then.

Within a few days of coming to Christ I found myself preaching Jesus on the streets and leading people in prayers to receive Him. I had Abraham walking on the water, Moses building Noah’s ark, John the Baptist wrote the Gospel of John (obviously). I didn’t have my all ducks in a row so to speak. But it didn’t stop God from using me to see over one thousand young people come to Christ that year. You don’t have to have a perfect understanding of Scripture before you can serve God. I’m not sure any of us have that, even after years of studying. I’ve sorted out most of my theology after fifty years, but I’ve always felt unprepared for what God is leading me into. I have studied leadership while I’m leading, preaching while I’m preaching, and management while I’m managing. God can equip us to do what we didn’t think we could do if we are prepared to obey Him and step out. This is the approach we have taken with our College. Every student must execute ministry assignments while they are studying. Knowledge and action are two very different things. Knowledge without action just makes Smart Alecs who know too much for their own good. Action without knowledge is also dangerous, but if we learn as we act, then our knowledge immediately becomes useful.

In the old days when I used to play golf, (‘play’ is a little generous, ‘hack a round’ is closer to the truth), I only had a certain amount of time on a certain day to play. Our tee-off time was set. We made the plans. Then heavy weather would come in. Guys would call to cancel. One or two would still come despite the weather. We were surrounded by dark drenching thunderclouds and rain, but on the course most of the time we were in the small patch of clear weather. God is good.

My kids always tried to come to the snow when I was planning to go. They said it always snowed when I went. Actually it didn’t, but I let them believe it. Many times, it would blizzard the night we arrived so it was steep and deep in the morning. There were also times when it didn’t. Icy slopes with clumps of dirt showing up through the snow, but we would still get out there anyway and have a blast.

The joy of life is in a lot more than the circumstances being perfect. Just being together on the slopes, working around the house, or on the golf course, studying or sailing, exercising or eating together, the meaningfulness of the moment is far greater than just the activity. It’s in the conversations, making the best of bad situations, creating memories. In fact, the most repeated stories around our dinner table when we get together are the disasters that